Despite the fact that releasing a new product in China for Apple is never smooth sailing, the company has definitely found its legs in the Chinese market.

And no one knows this better than Samsung.

New data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) reveals that 107.5 million smartphones were shipped to China in the 4th quarter of 2014 (2% Quarter-on-Quarter (QoQ). And it was Apple that managed to take the biggest chunk of this market away from Samsung.

Here's a remarkable stat. For Q4 of 2014, Apple finished in second place place with a respectable 12.3 percent Chinese market share. That's a better than 99% jump over the market share Apple scored in China just one year earlier.

"Although the 3G phone shipments in China were affected by the reduction in operators' subsidy, the market was able to grow in 2014Q4 due to its growth in 4G phones. Also, while the share of phones sold through operators dropped, the number of phones sold through eTailers increased (share increased from single to double-digit YoY) due to the popularity of eTailers such as jd.com and tmall.com. Apple's launch of larger screen sized phones also helped to contribute to the increase in shipments," says Tay Xiaohan, Senior Market Analyst with IDC Asia/Pacific's Client Devices team.